Pudge gets No. 1 sign

Sunday, August 26,
2007

Paul Hoynes

Plain Dealer Reporter

The best catcher I've ever seen was not happy.

Jack Morris had just hit Ivan Rodriguez on the wrist with a pitch in a game between the Indians and Texas in 1994. Rodriguez, plotting revenge, slid hard into second base on a force play in the same inning. He was out, but he took out shortstop Omar Vizquel with a knee injury on a slide meant to injure.

After the game, manager Mike Hargrove was seething. When a reporter asked about Rodriguez's slide, Hargrove threw a paper cup full of pop and ice out his office door and into a wall across the hallway. The brown pop slid down the white wall as Hargrove raved.

Not only was Hargrove mad at Rodriguez for putting Vizquel on the disabled list, he was upset at reliever Jose Mesa for not hitting Rodriguez later in the game. Looking back, could the Mesa-Vizquel feud been blooming even then?

Rodriguez, however, paid a price.

Whenever the two teams played in the wake of Vizquel's injury, Rodriguez was hit by an Indians pitcher. He accepted it.

Finally, Charles Nagy hit him during a game in Cleveland and Rodriguez spread his hands, as if to say, "Has my bill been paid?"

The Indians didn't hit Rodriguez again, at least not intentionally.

Catching is a contact job. The ball can thud into your mitt between 100 and 200 times a game. Foul tips, wild pitches, stray bats and base runners collide with your body.

There are freak injuries. Sandy Alomar Jr. twice split the webbing on his throwing hand trying to catch Tom Candiotti's knuckleball. A hitter's backswing once broke his cheekbone.

Contact and pain become second nature. Some catchers even like it.

Rodriguez may have that kind of streak running through him because it defined his best game.

In Game 4 of the National League division series in 2003 between Florida and San Francisco, with the score tied, 5-5, in the eighth inning, Rodriguez collided with Giants catcher Yorvit Torrealba while trying to score on a Miguel Cabrera single. Rodriguez knocked the ball loose from Torrealba, allowing himself and Derrek Lee to score for a 7-5 lead.

In the ninth, after the Giants made it 7-6 with two outs, Jeffrey Hammonds sent a soft single to left field with J.T. Snow on second base. Jeff Conine made a one-hop throw to Rodriguez. He buried the ball in his glove as Snow crashed into him.

Rodriguez held on, Snow was out and the Marlins eliminated the Giants to move onto the National League Championship Series and, eventually, a World Series title. Elias Sports Bureau said it was the only time in postseason history that the tying run was thrown out at the plate in a game-ending situation.

What better moment could a catcher have? A pitcher has a no-hitter. A power hitter has a four-homer game. A catcher, defining his craft, blocks the plate, saves the game, sends his team deeper into the postseason and rides off into the sunset.

Rodriguez hit .353 (6-for-17) with one homer and six RBI in the division series; .321 (9-for-28) with two homers and 10 RBI in the NLCS; and .273 (6-for-22) in the World Series that year.

He was 31, supposedly on the downside of his career after 12 seasons with Texas when he signed with the Marlins for one year. Teams wouldn't offer him a multiyear deal because they were afraid of the herniated disks in his back. The deal paid off.

Florida won its second World Series in six years and Rodriguez signed a $40 million contract with Detroit before the 2004 season. It seemed like strictly a money-driven move at the time, but Rodriguez was back in the World Series by 2006.

Rodriguez's game, even today at 35, is well- rounded. His arm, not as strong as when he could stop a running game with a mere glance to first base, is still dangerous. Offensively, he's no longer the AL MVP that he was in 1999, but he's still productive.

He calls a solid game and is as combative as ever behind the plate.

Rodriguez, like many players, has been tainted by steroid rumors. The rumors grew when he reported to spring training in 2005 significantly thinner than he'd been in the past. Rodriguez's body makeover coincided with MLB's stricter steroid-testing policy and being named as a steroid user in a book by former Rangers teammate Jose Canseco.

Did he or didn't he? The next time that question probably comes into play will be when Rodriguez becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame five years after his retirement.

Before the Johnny Bench e-mails start, please consider the parameters of this series. It is about the best players I've seen since I started covering the Indians in 1983. Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson always said that every conversation about the best catcher who ever lived should start and end with Bench.

Far be it from me to argue with Anderson, but here's my problem. Bench's last year was 1983, which was my first. So you can see why I took a different direction.